An explanation of the subject/contents of the document:
This letter is written from Thomas Boatwright to his wife explaining some things about war that are misunderstood/misinterpretted.
*Analysis:
This letter meant for his wife was very interesting because it taught me some things I did not completely understand about the War. It taught me the war was all over the country, but we only hear about the major battles. When I say all over, I mean that. If I had to guess, I'd say there must have been some sort of scurmish or little battle at least in every town and county in the South, and also many in the Southern section of the Union states. There was not any bias in this letter it was simply an explanation of how this war worked. This account of certain commands that were given during the war, as Boatwright had said, were a new account for me. Lee had commanded them not to touch anything that was of private ownership such as houses, or plantations or anything to that nature. That was surprising to me because I had previously thought no such commands were given and that the commanders and officers let their armies loot around on anyones' property they wished. Something I found interesting was "Now I come to speak of the country I never have seen finer crops of wheat in my life but [unclear: no] their crops seem to look so [illeg.]." This shows that the soldiers in these armies were in unknown territory to them, and that they havent been over 25 miles or so away from their homes before ever, and they are fighting 100s of miles away from their native towns, and the territory is very unfamiliar to them. One question I have about this letter is why he did not include details from the battles he has been in.
This newspaper article was to tell the readers first that General Averill had a successful raid on Tennessee and Virginia Railroads. Thene it gave vivid details about the conditions in this raid.
*Analysis:
One thing that was interesting about "Averill's Raid", ( The Article) is the detail it went into about the horrible conditions, mainly pertaining to weather during this raid. There was bias on the part of the Union side of the Army because this is a Union newspaper based in New York CIty, and it talks about how successful the raid went, while if this newspaper was based in the Confederate states, it may have said the raid was unnecessary and wrong, and would have changed the story a little bit. This document was put in place to inform the readers that although the conditions were horrible as this article suggests, we managed to pull through and successfully raid these railroads. The document also may have exaggerated the severity of the conditions to pull the reader to attention, and to imply the pride of our soldiers. An example of this exaggeration in the article is "But to feel the fury of the storm the more sever, and he can form but a mere idea of what was the scene on this trying occasion." This raid took place in November of 1863, but the article was not published until two months later. I found this interesting because today, when we read something in the newspaper, it is usually of an event that occured either the day before or close to it. This information took two months to reach the journalists at Harper's Weekly, for them to write an article about this information, and publish it, and this just shows how much slower information traveled 150 years ago. One question I have about this article is why it did not include more details about the actual raid itself and not so much about the weather conditions in it.
African Americans picking up bones of Civil War dead
Analysis:
This photo is a shocking portrayal of the destruction that we did to each other. We were together in the same country just 4 years before this. The complete destruction of people from the same country is indescribable, and to do it with the extent the United States did during the Civil War, makes it even more staggering. An element of this image that pops out to me is the amount of skulls, and different body parts that these slaves are picking up, which shows the violence of this particular battle, which was one of the most bloodiest battles in the Civil War ending in a Confederate, lob-sided victory. Since this was such a lob-sided victory for the Confederates, you may or may not infer those bodies found were Union soldiers. This particular photo gives insight on the efforts of slaves in picking up thousands of bodies in the aftermath of the bloodiest war in American history. Also, in the background of this image it looks to be a plantation. This is important because it shows the locality of this war, being fought just outside houses filled with families with children, which is a scary thought. One thing I would like to know is, "Which army are these dead bodies from?", and also "How many carcasses and different body parts did the slaves have to pick up, and how long did this effort take?"
Description of the Image:
This photo by John Reekie portrays slaves after the Civil War ends picking up dead carcasses from a battle of Cold Harbor in Cold Harbor, Virginia.
One of his many battle time "hits" during the Civil War, written in 1862, was played at Fort Sumter on April 14, 1865 when this fort was re-captured by Union troops.
Here are the lyrics to the Union version, which was the original version of this battle song.
1.
Yes we'll rally round the flag, boys,
we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom,
And we'll rally from the hillside
we'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
CHORUS
The Union forever,
Hurrah boys, hurrah!
Down with the Traitor,
Up with the Star;
While we rally round the flag, boys,
Rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
2.
We are springing to the call
Three Hundred Thousand more,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom,
And we'll fill the vacant ranks of
our brothers gone before,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
(CHORUS)
3.
We will welcome to our numbers
the loyal true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom,
And altho' he may be poor he
shall never be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
(CHORUS)
4.
So we're singing to the call from
the East and from the West,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom,
And we'll hurl the rebel crew from
the land we love the best,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
(CHORUS)
*Analysis:
This very popular battle song, was all about pride in one's army, and this particular song was for the Union and they say "down with the traitors", they are refering to Confederates. This song has a patriarchal rhythym to it, you can also say it is very militaristic, and you can picture Union soldiers marching down the battlefield after they defeated the COnfederates singing this song as a type of triumph they had. It makes one feel proud about any team or army or whatever group they are from, that they accomplished something great in their "battle". The only frustrations being released are the frustrations about the "traitors" and the evil they did and that it is finnaly over. One thing that was interesting about this song was not anything about the lyrics, but that it was the song sung at Fort Sumter after the Union took the fort from the Confederates. This song was very important to the Union because it cheered them up when they were down, and gave them pride after victories, small or large wherever they were throughout the blood-stricken country. Evidence of this can be found in verse 4 where it says "So we're singing to the call from the East and from the West Shouting the battle cry of freedom", which shows wherever there is a battle, they would bring their pride in the form of this song in an attempt for it to help them to win such battles. One question I have about this song, is "When was the first time it was sung in battle?", because I could not ifnd that in my research.
Newspaper Articles (15 points)
Image (15 points)
Song Lyric Template (15 points)
Here are the lyrics to the Union version, which was the original version of this battle song.
1.
Yes we'll rally round the flag, boys,
we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom,
And we'll rally from the hillside
we'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
CHORUS
The Union forever,
Hurrah boys, hurrah!
Down with the Traitor,
Up with the Star;
While we rally round the flag, boys,
Rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
2.
We are springing to the call
Three Hundred Thousand more,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom,
And we'll fill the vacant ranks of
our brothers gone before,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
(CHORUS)
3.
We will welcome to our numbers
the loyal true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom,
And altho' he may be poor he
shall never be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
(CHORUS)
4.
So we're singing to the call from
the East and from the West,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom,
And we'll hurl the rebel crew from
the land we love the best,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
(CHORUS)